DOZ Issue 35 September 2018 - Page 13

DOZ Leadership Lessons
Heather Dorniden Kampf
Eturuvie Erebor
About a year ago, I watched a very inspiring video. It was the 600-meter race of Heather Dorniden,
now Heather Kampf. When I watched the video, I was amazed at the lessons that I gleaned, and I
would like to share those lessons with you in this article, hoping that you will be inspired never to give
up and to keep going even after a setback.
For those who are not familiar with
Heather Dorniden, she is an American
middle-distance runner. In 2008, Heather
Dorniden, who at the time was a runner
for the University of Minnesota, was
leading the pack in the final heat of a
600-meter race when with about 200
meters of the race to go, she tripped and
fell on her face. Many would have given up
at this stage because the race was almost
over, and the others who she had been
ahead of, were now ahead of her. Quitters
would have sighed and said, what’s the
use? And then they would have proceeded
to call for a pity party where they would
have lamented the ill luck that caused
them to trip and fall just at the time when
they were ahead in the race. But Heather
Dorniden is no quitter. Almost as quickly
and as suddenly as she fell, she was back
on her feet, running faster than before. It
wasn’t long before she ran past all three
competitors who had overtaken her,
amid her crisis, and emerged the winner.
When she reached the finish line, she said
something so profound and thought-
provoking. “That last 50 meters, I hit a
gear that I never knew I had.” In rising
to continue running, Heather Dorniden
proved that success and failure are not
measured by how you fall, but by how
you pick yourself up.
https://www.runnersworld.com
DOZ Magazine September 2018
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